A computer program product including one or more non-transitory machine readable mediums encoded with instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause a process to be carried out for generating training data for training a classifier for identification of physical user devices, the process comprising:
- receiving a plurality of browser cookie device records, each of which represents one of a first plurality of user authentications, wherein the browser cookie device records are generated using browser cookie data;
- receiving a plurality of persistent identifier device records, each of which represents one of a second plurality of user authentications, wherein the persistent identifier device records are generated using an identifier that is more persistent than the browser cookie data;
- identifying a persistent identifier device record pair that includes a first persistent identifier device record having first device information and a second persistent identifier device record having second device information, wherein it is assumed that the first and second device information both identify a single particular device;
- identifying a first browser cookie device record pair that includes a first browser cookie device record having the first device information that was included in the first persistent identifier device record and a second browser cookie device record having the second device information that was included in the second persistent identifier device record;
- identifying a second browser cookie device record pair that includes two browser cookie device records that, collectively, do not include both the first and second device information;
- labeling the first browser cookie device record pair as corresponding to equivalent physical devices;
- labeling the second browser cookie device record pair as corresponding to distinct physical devices;
- and
- generating a training dataset that includes the labeled first browser cookie device record pair and the labeled second browser cookie device record pair.